


It Was Your Heart on the Line

by ADreamIsASoftPlaceToLand



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Second Citadel (Penumbra Podcast), am I gonna overuse that tag now?, but y'know what??, canon typical Arum ignoring feelings, fight me, it is ACCURATE, yep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-23 09:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20005924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ADreamIsASoftPlaceToLand/pseuds/ADreamIsASoftPlaceToLand
Summary: h/c prompt: You don't look fine to me. Why don't you tell me what's wrong?





	It Was Your Heart on the Line

**Author's Note:**

> requested by @jakkubrat on tumblr  
> title from Mumford and Sons "Little Lion Man"

Rilla is in love with a lizard. This is something that she has accepted. She is in love with lizard and that is fine. What she is having a little more trouble accepting is how she managed two fall in love with two boys who are absolutely ridiculous. Damien’s particular brand of ridiculousness she can handle. At least when he’s being ridiculous she can usually fix it, because he won’t shut up about whatever is bothering him. It’s usually pretty easy to solve problems if you can identify them first. 

With Arum, though, it’s much more difficult. Because instead of communicating, like a normal adult, he will pout. He will grump around the Keep huffing and flicking his tail and mumbling under his breath. And this drives Rilla up the wall. 

He’s doing it now, and she’s been trying to figure out how to approach the subject, watching him pace back and forth in his work room. At first, when she noticed him fidgeting and getting frustrated, she assumed that it was a problem with one of his experiments. So she waited, and listened, hoping he would mumble something that would give her enough information to start thinking up a solution. But, this time, as he paces, he’s silent. Shaking his head every once in a while as though shaking off a fly. Once she thinks she catches him say something that sounds like “ridiculous”, but that doesn’t give her much to go on. 

Eventually, she looks up from the book she’s been ignoring, and addresses him. “Arum, what’s wrong?”

Arum halts in his pacing, violet eyes flicking to her but not quite meeting her gaze. “There is nothing wrong, Amaryllis. I am - fine.” 

Rilla levels him with a skeptical gaze. “You don’t look fine to me. You’ve been pacing back and forth for almost an hour, and you haven’t touched your work in at least that long. You’re distracted. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong? If you don’t talk to me, I can’t help.”

Arum hisses out a frustrated rattle. “Even if I did tell you, Amaryllis, you would not be able to help me. Not that I need your help anyway.”

“Arum, please. Just. Talk to me? Even if I can’t help you, that’s part of this whole relationship thing. You’re supposed to tell us this stuff, because you trust us. We want to be a part of whatever you’re going through, even if it isn’t good. We want to be there for you, but you have to let us in first. Please,” she asks, standing and crossing the room to stand by his side. She places a hand on his arm, and he shakes his head but doesn’t pull away. 

He grumbles, “You ridiculous humans. Spending so much time worried about what is past. What cannot be changed. I am not like you. I do not waste my time wishing I could change what I have done.”

He hesitates then, but she knows better than to interrupt him. Damien will babble on and forget to breathe, but Arum is more cautious. Less comfortable sharing his feelings. If she interrupts him, he might never speak, content to let her go on for him. So she waits. She waits for him, her silence pushing him out of his comfort zone but also letting him know that he’s safe. That she isn’t going to scoff or contradict what he says. That she’s there to listen. 

And eventually, when he’s ready, he goes on. “I… do not wish I could change the past. But I cannot deny that I feel some measure of… Regret for the past injuries I’ve caused. I am responsible for a great deal of pain. Particularly to you. I kidnapped you. Took you away from your family, from Damien. I was going to keep you a prisoner here. And now… Now that I have you, and Damien, and even your disaster of a family of knights and fools. I understand… what that would have meant to you. Losing all of them. I do not regret what I have done, but I am… sorry, Amaryllis. I am sorry that I took that away from you. I did not understand at the time what a family meant. How great that loss could be. Were I ever to lose you, or the little knight, I-”

She does cut him off then, throwing her arms around his neck, wrapping him in a hug. He huffs in surprise, but quickly returns the embrace, slipping his arms around her waist and burying his snout in her soft hair. She presses a kiss to his cheek as she says, “We love you, too, y’know. And for the record, you did let me go. You let me go, and then you helped me save them. That more than makes up for anything you said. You were just trying to protect your Keep, your family. It might not have been the best decision, but you did the right thing when it mattered. That’s what’s important.”

He huffs grumpily into her hair, “You humans and your - feelings - you’re rubbing off on me.” 

She squeezes him a little harder. “Good. You know it’s ok to have feelings, right? It’s ok to feel bad about the mistakes you’ve made. It’s what motivates you to do better in the future. Just as long as you know that we’ve forgiven you. All of us.”

“Amaryllis… Thank you,” he mumbles, and she pulls back to look him in the eye.

“Does this mean you’re glad you told me how you were feeling?” She raises and eyebrow, teasing. 

“I - mmm,” Arum growls. “Do not push your luck, Amaryllis.”

“So what you’re saying is I was right.” She rocks forward onto tiptoes to press a kiss to his nose. 

Arum growls again and leans down to nip at her shoulder and bump his snout against her cheek playfully. “Yes, Amaryllis of Exile. You were right. Are you satisfied?”

She pulls him back down into a hug and whispers, “Yes, you ridiculous lizard. I am.”


End file.
